History Main / ConservationofNinjutsu

** Another variation on this trope was used in an early Spider-Man comic where three police officers burst in to help Spider-Man against a large gang of thugs. The cops are almost as effective against the overwhelming number of hoods as Spider-Man himself.

There is a measure of TruthInTelevision in this Law, as well. Unless a group of fighters have trained together, ''specifically in fighting as a group'', once there are more than about four of them, they begin to get in each other's way. Each one can't choose his optimal attack, he can only take what openings are left by his own teammates; he also has to be careful to not injure those teammates. The singleton, on the other hand, can pick and choose from a number of targets, and can take actions that increase the amount of interference among his opponents. In RealLife, the Law ''does'' fail given sufficiently high numbers of opponents: sheer numbers means that the hero will eventually get tired while there are still opponents who are relatively fresh. Likewise, superior numbers can play "monkey in the middle" in terms of attacking an opponent from all sides-- or simply ''hampering'' the opponent while others attack from behind, or simply grabbing onto the outnumbered opponent(s) while the others inflict damage(see "Death of Isildur's Army" below); this is why Conservation of Ninjitsu typically involves opponents attacking only one at a time.

* ''{{Naruto}}'' takes it to new heights. Not only do minions and other extras actively exhibit the trope, but the titular character himself possesses the ability to make a good 1000+ clones of himself. To that point, if he creates 1-5, they're usually the key to his victory, but almost any time he goes over 10 or so (which turns out to be his most common [[IdiotHero strategy]]), they turn into cannon fodder, as their main weakness is that they usually go poof with just one hit.

** A textbook example occurs in chapter 254. Negi takes down a small army of Governor Godel's elite [[BlatantLies "private bodyguards"]] in a matter of seconds, but when [[spoiler: he fights Godel one-on-one, the Govenor takes his legs out before he can react, then nails him with a barrier peircing attack whilst he was unable to dodge.]] Negi was on the floor before he knew what hit him.

** Further justified in the current ark, where Griffith's army [[spoiler: fights an equally powerful army of equally messed up demons.]]

** Though this is only as a result of the anime's GeckoEnding. In the manga, despite gathering half of the Organizations warriors, they only manage to kill eight Awakened Beings before being wiped out. The Awakened Ones' field commander actually notes that this was an exemplary result for the Warriors.

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

[[folder:Western Animation ]]

* BRUTALLY {{Subverted}} in {{Oblivion}}. If you aren't playing a [[Tank Combat Character]], and you get jumped by any more then 3 guys at once(unless you're on [[{{DifficultyLevels}} an easier difficulty level), expect to be skirting around near death nearly all of the time.

** This is due to the source of the footage, though. In ''KamenRiderRyuki,'' it was a MonsterOfTheWeek called Gelnewt who was not mass-produced (except in a much-later ''KamenRiderDecade'' movie ''not involving Ryuki,'' oddly) and was of standard monster strength. Any instance of a lone, ultra-strong Gelnewt comes from that two-parter.

Likewise, however, this means that as fewer enemies are left, each one takes ''longer'' than those before it; this mimics the battles getting tougher as the hero works his way up to the BigBad (not the hero getting tired, of course, because FatigueIsForLosers).

[[folder: Truth In Television ]]
* When you think about it, this trope sort of makes sense when taken literally. Ninjas were assassins, not infantrymen. Their biggest asset was stealth and dirty tricks, not strength (that would be a Samurai, pretty much the inversion of a ninja's tactics). One ninja in a good hiding spot ''would'' be much deadlier than 10 or so in an open field where they could be shot down in droves by a few trained marksmen who knew where to aim. Though they'd ''still'' be stronger in numbers if they held to their real tactics--ninjas shouldn't abandon stealth and march down an open field, just because there's ten of them.
* Chesty's wisdom (see top) seems to imply that the smaller force has the advantage by simply having many more targets, while the opposing side would have to take care not to inflict casualties upon themselves.
-->'''Chesty''': We're surrounded. That simplifies our problem of getting to these people and killing them.
* Considering the logistics and the leadership requirements of a larger force, a smaller one can be more efficient, and defeat the larger one. Tactics matter, too. During the Finnish Winter War, many a wave of poorly led, freezing Soviet conscripts was repelled by few, couple, or indeed [[OneManArmy one man]], armed with [[ColdSniper bolt-action rifle]] and sheer determination.
* The best tactic being: make sure they remain poorly-led and freezing by killing their officers and destroying supplies, rather than dealing directly with overwhelming numbers.
* In the English Civil War, Parliamentarian armies often outnumbered royalist armies by quite large amounts, but the war was still stalemated for several years (Though the side with more forces did win in the end, unlike what would usually be expected from this trope.)
* Sun Tzu's ''{{The Art of War}}'' argues that a force's source of strength is unity, not size. The ''real'' lesson, however, is that what matters is your effective strength, not your actual size or numbers. If you have only a thousand men, and them ten thousand, if you can force them to spread out so you can attack them 500 at a time, you have the advantage; likewise, you can attack with fire, creating a "force" which kills men without actually investing nearly as much manpower. As such, a small army can take out a large one, provided they never allow the large one to bring their power to bear on the small one all at once.
* Some of the most dramatic victories in history were where a smaller, more organized force managed to flank and ''surround'' a larger force. Hannibal pulled this one a few times, as did Samson, when his small army slew 1000 Philistines with the "Jawbone of an Ass--" i.e. a flanking-maneuver formation that resembles a donkey's mandible.
* This often happened to Asian pirates during the Mid-1800s. Unlike western pirates (Blackbeard, Captin Kidd, etc.) who would command one or two ships, Asian pirates commanded ''fleets'' of junks that were powerful enough to extort whole coastal villages, let alone attack merchant ships. When the Europeans arrived, however, they would attack these pirate fleets at 1-to-20 odds and still came out on top. One good example would be the pirate lord, Shap-'ng Tsai who commanded a fleet of at least 70 junks. In 1849, the British Navy sent ''three'' ships after Tsai and when the three ships encountered the pirate fleet, [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome they sent 58 of the pirate ships to the bottom of the sea after a two-day battle.]]
* Mirbat, Oman, 1972 - 8 men from an SAS detachment were attacked by 250 Soviet-armed rebels. They held out for six hours before the British reinforced them and won the day.
** The SAS are a general example of this - highly, highly trained soldiers with customized equipment, trained to attack bridges, planes, strong points etc. that were normally considered unassailable. Normally used for sabotage, they had an effect hugely disproportionate to their number - even when used like an infantry battalion they could hold of superior numbers of forces to a ridiculous degree.
* [[http://www.cracked.com/article_17019_5-real-life-soldiers-who-make-rambo-look-like-pussy.html Five real life examples]] of this trope. Audie Murphy runs on this so much that he lands in {{Refuge In Audacity}} territory.
* USMC Lt. Col. Jeff Cooper, called the Father of Modern Shooting, was in love with this trope. His magazine columns ''constantly'' brought up examples where small groups, trained with their weapons and the use of cover, wipe out much larger, [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy less-trained]] groups, and often seem to imply that [[ConservationOfNinjutsu numbers are a weakness in and of themselves]].
* Conventional theories of communication state that there are optimal numbers for the size of a discussion group; get too many people in a "small group", and it's not small enough anymore, as the opportunity for [[AllYourPowersCombined people to synergistically contribute their individual talents or views to the group's whole]] is diluted by not enough opportunity to contribute per individual. Depending on the specifics of the group and the pet theories you endorse, this number is generally around four to twelve people.
* The ''GIJoe'' character Snake-Eyes was originally a black-clad commando. In 1985, he was re-imagined as a ninja (to fight 1984's Storm Shadow), and became insanely popular. By the late '80s, SE was the series' flagship character, and the property was the most lucrative boy's toyline in the world. Trading on that popularity, Hasbro began introducing more ninjas, eventually creating an entire "Ninja Force" subset of characters in 1992. In 1993, the comicbook was renamed ''G.I. Joe Starring '''Snake-Eyes''''', and more ninjas were introduced. So what is this doing in TruthInTelevision instead of ComicBooks? In 1994, the entire Real American Hero franchise was canceled. Too many ninjas!
* Battle of Rorke's Drift. 139 British soldiers against 4 to 5 thousand Zulu warriors, who's armies had previously taken on and spectacularly defeated a much larger British force.
* Funnily enough, both the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Isandlwana Battle of Isandlwana]] and the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rorke%27s_Drift Battle of Rorke's Drift]] took place on the same day - with both the British and Zulu armies having a taste of the receiving end of this trope. First at Isandlwana, the Zulu forces managed to get close enough to the British forces on open ground that their superior weaponry was rendered effectively useless (it also helped that the Brits ran out of ammunition) resulting in a humiliating rout for the British, then the Zulus attempted to overun more firmly entrenched British forces at Rorke's Drift, and suffered their own humiliating defeat (coincidentally, the Zulu King, Cetswayo, had given direct orders that they were only to attack the British on open ground, not when they were fortified - the adrenalin rush from their earlier victory is probably the reason that this order was ignored). In retrospect, the whole affair is somewhat amusing.
* The Wagon Box Fight. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagon_Box_Fight About 30 soldiers against a couple thousand Indians, and the soldiers won.
* In the Battle of Watling Street the Roman General Gaius Suetonius Paulinus defeated an army of 100-230 thousand Britons lead by Boudica with his army of 10,000 Romans. Use of the terrain, and superior Roman discipline and weapons enabled him to defeat a much larger army.
** This victory wouldn't have decreased if the Romans had been superior in number, however!
* WWII German fighter ace [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans-Joachim_Marseille Hans Joachim Marseille]] was famous for this. His favorite tactic was to dive unaccompanied into formations of enemy fighters and pick them off in the ensuing confusion. His crowning achievement was attacking a flight of 16 P-40's ''and downing six of them.'' Three of the six were aces themselves.
* Cao Cao - not only outnumbered but also vastly short on supplies - beat Yuan Shao at the Battle of Guandu through adroit maneuver. He raided Yuan's supply lines, culminating in a night attack with elite cavalry on Yuan's supply depot, taking enough to feed his army and burning the rest. Then, with his men high on confidence and his enemy now poorly-supplied and low on morale from the recent defeats, he proceeded to attack and destroy Yuan's force, helped also by a strategy of sowing discord amongst Yuan's generals that ensured they would not be whole-hearted in serving Yuan and helping out each other.
** Cao Cao was later to get a taste of his own medicine at Chibi, in one of the most famous battles in Chinese history. His force, claimed to be 800,000 strong but in reality more likely containing 200,000 soldiers, was beaten by an allied Shu-Wu army one-quarter the size. The defeat decisively ended Cao Cao's hopes of unifying China and solidified the three-way division of the country.
[[/folder]]

* Subverted in an early issue of ''Comicbook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles''. Leonardo does battle with practically the entire Foot Clan and gets his ass kicked. Although, he [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome did managed to put up quite a fight]].

* GeorgeWashington used this trope to win many battles in the Revolutionary War. He once even wrote this about his soldiers: ''"Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all."''
** Of course, using guerilla tactics, learned from fighting the Native Amaricans, against foes used to more formal battle helped a bit.

** One such power, ''Rise to the Challenge'' in the Willpower set, not only boosts your health regeneration rate higher as more foes surround you, but it also gives those foes a fairly to-hit debuff.

* Both ''AssassinsCreed'' games are particularly guilty of this trope. Often you will find that if you are attacked by groups of 5 or 6 they will queue up to be killed, whereas when dealing with one or two you'll find they tend to make an attempt at fighting back, using blocks, parries and counters on you that larger groups won't.

* Cao Cao beat the numerically vastly superior force of Yuan Shao by setting fire to their supplies.

** Not to mention that Indy is able to take out lots of armed nomads; but he has to be a pussy that needs a GUN, against the ''one'' remaining.
*** In fact, that was ad-libbed; Indy was supposed to take on the swordsman without using his gun, but Harrison Ford was ill on the set and had to be a pussy-- somehow they thought it was funny and left it in (because a stunt is ALWAYS funny when the film-makers think it is, right?)

* Horribly, ''horribly'' averted and subverted in the fourth and fifth installments, respectively, of DeadFantasy.

* Part 5 of the ''DeadFantasy'' series subverts this when [[spoiler:Tifa]] squares off against a few dozen ninja. She still wrecks their faces, but not without taking some serious damage.
** Part 4 actually subverts this, too, with [[spoiler:Yuna]] and her summoned monsters versus an army of [[spoiler:Kasumi]] clones. The monsters don't fare so well.